May brought a few new favorite works to our classroom that included identifying and matching objects to pictures or object to object. Some of the items included objects that fly and parts of a train. It’s important to remember that at the toddler level they are observing and taking in everything they see and hear. This means they have the ability to understand more than just a plane or train. They can begin to distinguish the difference between a jet plane, a blimp, and a biplane. As well as understand that a train is made up of several parts like the steam engine, flat car, and caboose. It’s amazing to see the toddlers begin to talk about and identify these objects without the help of a teacher. Even the younger toddlers can distinguish the differences and match the items.
May also meant the toddlers were able to give their Mother’s Day gift of footprints made into beautiful butterflies. This is a great keepsake to remember the children being so small, as they keep getting bigger. The month also meant preparing for Father’s Day with a gluing project, which I’m sure all the dads will enjoy. June is already approaching so quickly, and it means we will have a few friends to say goodbye to. Some friends will transition onto the early childhood program where we will get to see them in passing, and get to watch as they continue to grow and develop with new works and opportunities. Other friends will be leaving due to family circumstances, and we want to wish them all the best. It’s been an exciting year with lots of learning, and getting to know each other. The month of June will include some more food prep works such as grinding coffee beans, and spreading humus on crackers. As well as some works refining pouring, spooning, and tonging. The month will wrap up with an end of the year carnival that I hope to get to see everyone at. A great time to talk with other parents, and see the children having fun! I hope that everyone has a wonderful summer, and I’m looking forward to some great summer camp weeks. There will be lots of food prep opportunities, outside activities, as well as art projects. We will also get the chance to meet some new friends, and hopefully enjoy lots of sunshine. Water play is also sure to be a big hit this summer. Thanks for a wonderful school year! Tammia Streuber Lead Teacher Celeste
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The toddlers of Celeste enjoyed their time together during the month of April. There were a few great days of sunshine, which included chasing bubbles and using chalk on the sidewalks. It’s always hard for toddlers to break their routine, and be convinced that it really is okay to not have a coat on when it’s nice and sunny outside! The month also brought a focus on some practical life skills of scrubbing windows and tables, as well as using a hand-grinder to crush crackers. The crackers were then poured into a bowl that the children enjoyed practicing the skill of using a spoon to eat their finely ground crackers. To end the month the children got to participate in some art painting projects for both Mother’s Day and the silent auction. They all enjoyed choosing their own colors to paint with, and pointing out where they saw those same colors in the environments around them. The month also ended with a great celebration of Earth Day involving a concert from Eric Ode, and a play date at the park with the entire infant and toddler community. It was a wonderful month to be a toddler at MCH!
May will continue some more exploration of self-help and practical life skills, as some of the toddlers will begin their introduction into the world of toilet learning. It’s always an exciting time as the children share with each other just how excited they are to be in underwear and use the toilet. This self-pride and excitement becomes contagious, as other children who aren’t quite ready for underwear begin to try the toilet more as they watch their peers do so. May will also bring further academic exploration with works involving animals, magnifying glasses, shapes, and counting. The toddlers will get the chance to take their magnifying glasses around the inside and outside environments, and look for bugs or other exciting items. May is sure to another great month for the toddlers of Celeste! March brought a few glimpses of some warmer weather to the toddlers of Celeste, but hopefully even more sunshine will be seen in April. In order to share Springtime with the children during the month of March we added flowers for arranging, and even a bird identifying work to our classroom. Many of the toddlers could match the picture of a woodpecker, blue jay, cardinal, and robin to the replicated objects. Hopefully, we will be able to see some of these birds outside soon. March was also a great time to bring in some other seasonal works such as tonging shamrock buttons, and using a hand sweeper to pick up colorful flowers.
The start of April brings Spring break, and a chance for families to get to spend some quality time together. Coming back to school the toddlers of Celeste will focus further energy into practical life works of cleaning and food prep. We will bring tables and chairs outside for scrubbing, and work on polishing some muddy rain boots. For food prep the children will get to work on grinding coffee beans and spreading jam on crackers. Practical life skills and self help activities always bring a great deal of concentration and joy to toddlers. The friendship fruit salad in February was a big hit for our Valentine's celebration. Thank you to all of the families who contributed Fruit! The variety in fruits made for wonderful conversations about color, texture, and taste. Some of the favorite fruits seemed to be the different types of berries and melons. The toddlers helped peel bananas and oranges, cut the fruits into manageable sizes for eating, and stir all the wonderful varieties together. Of course the eating of the salad together was one of their favorite parts. The month of February also showcased a few new favorite works such as the wooden train set, transparent building blocks for the light table, as well as some wooden lock boxes with shape sorting. The addition of some heart shape tonging and hole punching works was also greatly enjoyed.
March usually brings a change in weather and our surrounding outdoor environments. The emergence of early Spring like signs start to be seen by the toddlers making them even more excited to explore their surroundings. Celeste will also add some new works to the classroom dealing with flowers, the seasons, and animals. Families will be encouraged to sign up to bring in fresh flowers for arranging by the toddlers. The middle of March will also bring a school wide Montessori Celebration, which I hope to see all the families of Celeste attend. The month is sure to bring a lot of new sensorial experiences, and interesting works to the toddlers. Tammia Streuber Lead Teacher Celeste The new year has brought several new friends to Celeste. The children have been learning each other’s names, and like to say hi to one another. As these new friends have been adjusting into school it’s been wonderful to see how welcoming and helpful our toddlers can be. There has been a lot of offering to get shoes from cubbies, and showing each other how to take deep breaths. A few of the fine motor activities that the children enjoyed this month included using their pincer grasp to pick up small beads and string them on a pipe cleaner, as well as using a spoon to transfer wooden beads into a frog shaped container. Counting and working on a one to one correspondence have also been a focus during the month of January. During circle time there have been lots of requests for counting monkeys and cars! The pink tower cubes also entered our classroom to help the toddlers of Celeste work on sorting small, medium, and large. Some children even stacked the cubes from biggest to smallest, and commented on making Frosty the Snowman! The thoughts and connections being made at the toddler level are always a wonderful thing to witness.
February is a great month to focus on friendship, and helping the toddlers of Celeste learn how to socialize and work with their peers. Toddlers don’t quite understand the concept of passing out Valentines, so they will be making a friendship fruit salad together. The process of making this salad encourages the children to work together on the practical life skills of peeling, stirring, chopping, and serving the salad to one another. The month also brings in some new works that deal with heart shapes in the form of sorting and gluing them. The theme of friendship can also spread to our environment and animals, which is all about teaching the children to be respectful and kind just as they are with their friends. We will venture out on our walks to see the goats, rabbits, ducks, and chickens. Stopping to visit their environments and learning about how they are cared for. February is sure to be a great month! Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Holiday break with their family.
December was a great time for self-help skills. With the colder temperatures the children had many opportunities to work on dressing themselves in layers, putting gloves and hats on, as well as boots and coats. The teachers spent time talking each of the children through the steps, and breaking down more complicated tasks. This helps each child feel a sense of pride in being able to do things for themselves. The month also provided the opportunity for each child to make a wonderful picture frame gift for their family. They enjoyed painting their hands with glue, adding glitter to their hand-print, as well as smiling big for a picture. Hopefully these gifts will be cherished over the years! As we enter January our classroom gets the privilege of welcoming new friends into Celeste. Some of these friends are new to our school, and others will be transitioning over from the infant room. This is always a great time for the toddlers to work on language skills, as they learn new names and greet new friends. The month will also bring a focus on some fine motor art skills, as well as some new math concepts. Our classroom will add some hole punching and new gluing works, as well as works that allow for the sorting of materials into the categories of large, medium, and small. Some of the toddlers of Celeste will also work on defining the difference between one and two with different counting materials.
The toddlers of Celeste had a wonderful November. They enjoyed continuing the exploration of the sensory table and different types of play dough. A few of their favorites were scooping bugs out of water, exploring large noodles, smelling dough with difference scents, and adding color to some play dough. Thank you to everyone who contributed these wonderful additions into our classroom. The beautiful flowers were another wonderful treat, which the toddlers worked on placing into vases and handling very gently. November also brought a focus onto several grace and courtesy skills, which the older toddlers really enjoyed helping to show the younger friends of Celeste. The children helped to set our tables everyday for lunch, and helped one another clear spots after snack and lunch. The wooden kitchen was another area in which grace and courtesy were often demonstrated during pretend picnics where they would serve each other everything from scrambled eggs to ice cream! Hopefully the Thanksgiving holiday gave families a time to see their toddlers practicing these grace and courtesy skills at home with their families. The month of December often goes by quickly with the holiday break, but gives us the chance to work on creating a unique holiday gift with each toddler. This year the toddler’s of Celeste will use glitter and their wonderful smiles to produce a gift for their families to enjoy! November brought a lot of goodbyes to our classroom with several children leaving for the EC program, as well as some new friends joining Celeste. This means December will bring a focus on learning the routines of the classroom more, as well as how to take whole works off the shelves and return them back to their places. Some of the previous younger toddlers will start to move into older toddler roles, and begin to show our younger friends how to complete tasks through modeling. It’s wonderful to get the chance to see Montessori’s concept of mixed ages shine through so nicely. October was a very busy and exciting month for the toddlers of Celeste. The infant/toddler gathering at Farrel McWhirter park allowed many in our community to come together to explore the animals, and have a chance to see the children run around and play with one another. There has also been a lot of talk about fire trucks and emergency rescue vehicles in our classroom, which has greatly been sparked by the visit of some Redmond firefighters and their vehicles to our school. The children enjoyed reading books about fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, as well as adding a firefighter hat to the dress up clothes.
Thank you to all the families who have helped us celebrate the month of October with several Fall time themes and activities. The wonderful pumpkins provided to our classroom added works of hammering, painting, and sensory exploration to our classroom. The toddlers enjoyed feeling the gourds, and talking about their bumps and colors. A few other Fall time activities the toddlers enjoyed were gluing decorations on foam pumpkins, sorting pumpkin erasers, tonging bats and rats, and exploring cinnamon sticks and oats. Outside the changing colors of the leaves, and winds that brought the leaves twirling down were wonderful sights for the children to see. Our outside environment makes Fall time so exciting for the toddlers! In November the toddlers of Celeste will continue to work with new materials for our sensory table, as well as continue working on flower arranging. The work of arranging flowers gives the toddlers the opportunity to work on several skills, such as pouring water through a funnel and using a sponge to clean up any spills. November is also a great time to continue the growth of the children’s grace and courtesy skills through serving snack to each other, setting tables for lunch, and using language that is peaceful with one another. Skills that can also be worked on at home, and add a nice addition into meal time routine’s for families. September brought a great start to our new school year, and the addition of some wonderful new classmates. All of the returning students were so helpful in checking on their new friends and helping them learn the routine of the day. This month always brings a new focus on self-help skills with shoes and clothes. The toddlers respond best with breaking down the steps for these skills and giving them time to think through the process. Celeste children also enjoyed working with a few new additions into the classroom of a wooden kitchen and wooden cash register. These works help support the development of language and imaginary play in both the young and older toddlers. The month wrapped up with an all school BBQ and concert by Recess Monkey, which was a fantastic opportunity to build a stronger sense of community.
The month of October will start with another community building event in the Infant and Toddler program, which will be a park gathering at Farrel McWhirter. This park has a wonderful animal setting that is sure to be a big hit with all the families. October brings a wonderful change in the seasons to colder temps and great Fall colors. The children will work on bundling themselves in layers, hats, and gloves. A basket of gloves will adorn the classroom for the toddlers to work on throughout the day. The classroom will also get the addition of some gourds and pumpkins for scrubbing and painting, as well as some small acorns and pumpkins with tongs for transferring works. The month will end with a Fall time celebration of Harvest Festival for the entire school community. The toddlers of Celeste greatly enjoyed working on their art projects for their Moms during the month of May. They chose colors to use, painted the inside of a mason jar, helped cut foam, and put together a lovely Mother's Day mason jar vase with a beautiful flower. Seeing the excitement on the toddler's faces to be able to give something to their moms was really priceless. The older toddlers especially enjoy being able to do for others even at this young age. The month of May also brought the exploration of some new works. These included counting different items in groups of 1 versus 2, using a heart shaped hole punch on card stock, and classifying animals by their sizes of small, medium, and large. These were all new favorite works shared by many of the children. May did not let us down with more wonderful weather and sunshine to explore the outdoors. The nature trail got a lot of use by the toddlers, and they enjoyed exploring around the trees and feeding the goats. May was a great month for the toddlers of Celeste.
June is already coming upon us more quickly than expected. It means wrapping up the school year, and seeing many of our friends transition onto early childhood classrooms for the summertime. We will definitely cherish the remaining time that we have with them, and enjoy working and playing with them. It is always so hard to say goodbye to these children who have made Celeste their home away from home. These children are prepared and ready to explore new environments and activities, and will do great in their new classrooms. It will be exciting to see them around campus during summer and the next school year, as we will get to wave to them and say hello! The end of the school year will finish up with an end of the year carnival and a toddler field day! Both of which will be sure to bring smiles to all the toddler's faces. I hope that everyone has a wonderful summer, and I'm looking forward to some great summer camp activities. We will also get the chance to meet some new friends, and welcome them into our classroom! Thanks for a really great school year! |
Ms. TammiaEl Salon Celeste Lead Teacher Archives
October 2018
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Montessori Children's House
5003 218th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98053 Phone: 425-868-7805 [email protected] For Records Requests, please reach out to [email protected]. |
Founded in 1987
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